Singapore will soon have its first fine-casual Filipino restaurant in the form of Hayop ni Manam, a spin-off of the popular Philippines eatery Manam.
Opening Jul 12 on Amoy Street, Hayop ni Manam will serve classic Filipino dishes like sisig, kare-kare, lechon, lumpia and adobo, as well as cocktails inspired by Filipino flavours.
Expect the same ingredients you’d find in a Michelin-star restaurant, like Duroc pork from Spain, grass-fed New Zealand wagyu and French chicken from Toh Thye San farm. Sauces and condiments are also made from scratch.
Manam’s Wagyu & Watermelon Sinigang: Grass-fed NZ Wagyu bone-in short rib, charred watermelon, French and winged beans, fresh taro root and baby radish in sour tamarind and watermelon broth. (Photo: Hayop ni Manam)
Manam, which has close to 30 outlets in the Philippines, was started by three friends, Abba Napa, Eliza Antonio and Jon Syjuco, in 2012 under The Moment Group. The group now owns over 60 restaurants under a dozen concepts, and eight out of 10 Manam outlets see daily queues for lunch and dinner, according to Napa.
Hayop ni Manam is the group’s first venture outside of the Philippines.
In 2019, Manam held a pop-up in Singapore that sold out within 24 hours. “At the end of the meal, the Filipinos who came said, ‘We want to invest. We’d give our kidneys for this’,” Napa, 45, told CNA Lifestyle. And, “For the last six years, we've been getting emails saying, ‘Please open here’. I didn’t take them seriously until finally, someone said, ‘If you get one email every month, maybe you should explore it.’”
Jon Syjuco, Abba Napa and Eliza Antonio (Photo: The Moment Group)
“Hayop” is a slang word in the Philippines that literally translates to “beast” and is used to describe something unbelievably amazing, Napa said, while “manam” comes from the word “malinamnam” meaning “heartily tasty”.
The majority of dishes on the menu are Manam classics that have remained unchanged for over a decade, while other dishes are unique to Singapore; these were inspired by the availability of good produce from all over the world.
While it would have been easy to serve tasting menus, Napa shared, it was important to keep the cuisine “recognisable”. “I think that Filipino fare is meant to be sharing and tapas-size, and I think that's the way to go – to keep it, I guess, honest. And well priced, hopefully.”
Kinilaw: Hamachi, sukang pinakurat, house-made chili and garlic oil, sea salt. (Photo: Hayop ni Manam)
On Hayop ni Manam’s menu are dishes like kinilaw or raw seafood including hamachi and Kuruma ebi (from S$26) with Hayop’s local vinegars and spices; chicharron bulaklak (S$16); lechon kawali (S$18); and Manam Manila favourites including crispy sisig (S$22), wagyu and watermelon sinigang (S$56), and halo-halo (S$18). There are also pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan options.
Unlike other global Filipino concepts around the world, said Napa, who studied restaurant management and culinary techniques at the French Culinary Institute in New York and was formerly in retail, Hayop ni Manam was “created with the lens of Filipinos who are born, bred and raised, and continue to live in, the Philippines.”
Food-wise, “If you took a fisherman or bus driver from the Philippines and sat them in this restaurant, and we brought out the dishes – okay, granted, they're a bit more plated, maybe we use tweezers sometimes – but that fisherman will say, ‘I can recognise that dish.’ That's extremely important to us.”
And so, “I feel like maybe, there's a chance to take care of nostalgic, homesick Filipinos. That's really the primary reason we said we'd come,” she added. At the same time, she hopes to also offer them “a dining room where they can introduce their non-Filipino friends to the cuisine” – and, of course, a place for Singaporeans to deepen their understanding of Filipino food.
Manam’s House Crispy Sisig: Chopped, sizzling pork jowl and cheek. (Photo: Hayop ni Manam)
“Singapore, to me, has an amazing, rich, mature dining scene, and Singaporeans have very high standards for food. I feel if we can do something here that can resonate, maybe we can resonate in other markets, as long as we pass the Singapore test,” Napa chuckled.
Hayop ni Manam’s local partners are Russell Yu of Iki Concepts and Gwen Lim of Patisserie G. Manam’s R&D chef and junior executive chef are currently in town, and The Moment Group’s founders plan to be here often. Napa herself has family here, whom she has been visiting regularly for many years.
“I always say Filipino cuisine is magical because it makes so much out of so little,” she mused. “I think that's what's special about our cuisine – it’s a heritage of flavours more than a heritage of meat. We haven't tried to mess with that. I think there are amazing global Filipino concepts you'll find in other markets that take advantage of all ingredients from other cuisines. And that's wonderful. I love going to them. But, we kind of wanted to stay true, for the most part, to the pantry list that the Filipino household has.
“There are very few ingredients we have here that don't belong in that pantry list – one would be extra virgin olive oil, because that's yummy; butter, which we've used with a lot of discipline; one dish has red wine; and one dish has honey. Other than that, every Filipino mama will have our ingredients.”
And, each dish is complex in its components. “We only have around 30-plus dishes on the menu, but we have over 100 sub-recipes for those dishes, so, there's a lot of effort that goes into making them,” she said.
Hayop ni Manam is at 104 Amoy Street.
Continue reading...
Opening Jul 12 on Amoy Street, Hayop ni Manam will serve classic Filipino dishes like sisig, kare-kare, lechon, lumpia and adobo, as well as cocktails inspired by Filipino flavours.
Expect the same ingredients you’d find in a Michelin-star restaurant, like Duroc pork from Spain, grass-fed New Zealand wagyu and French chicken from Toh Thye San farm. Sauces and condiments are also made from scratch.
Manam’s Wagyu & Watermelon Sinigang: Grass-fed NZ Wagyu bone-in short rib, charred watermelon, French and winged beans, fresh taro root and baby radish in sour tamarind and watermelon broth. (Photo: Hayop ni Manam)
Manam, which has close to 30 outlets in the Philippines, was started by three friends, Abba Napa, Eliza Antonio and Jon Syjuco, in 2012 under The Moment Group. The group now owns over 60 restaurants under a dozen concepts, and eight out of 10 Manam outlets see daily queues for lunch and dinner, according to Napa.
Hayop ni Manam is the group’s first venture outside of the Philippines.
In 2019, Manam held a pop-up in Singapore that sold out within 24 hours. “At the end of the meal, the Filipinos who came said, ‘We want to invest. We’d give our kidneys for this’,” Napa, 45, told CNA Lifestyle. And, “For the last six years, we've been getting emails saying, ‘Please open here’. I didn’t take them seriously until finally, someone said, ‘If you get one email every month, maybe you should explore it.’”
Jon Syjuco, Abba Napa and Eliza Antonio (Photo: The Moment Group)
“Hayop” is a slang word in the Philippines that literally translates to “beast” and is used to describe something unbelievably amazing, Napa said, while “manam” comes from the word “malinamnam” meaning “heartily tasty”.
The majority of dishes on the menu are Manam classics that have remained unchanged for over a decade, while other dishes are unique to Singapore; these were inspired by the availability of good produce from all over the world.
While it would have been easy to serve tasting menus, Napa shared, it was important to keep the cuisine “recognisable”. “I think that Filipino fare is meant to be sharing and tapas-size, and I think that's the way to go – to keep it, I guess, honest. And well priced, hopefully.”
Kinilaw: Hamachi, sukang pinakurat, house-made chili and garlic oil, sea salt. (Photo: Hayop ni Manam)
On Hayop ni Manam’s menu are dishes like kinilaw or raw seafood including hamachi and Kuruma ebi (from S$26) with Hayop’s local vinegars and spices; chicharron bulaklak (S$16); lechon kawali (S$18); and Manam Manila favourites including crispy sisig (S$22), wagyu and watermelon sinigang (S$56), and halo-halo (S$18). There are also pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan options.
Unlike other global Filipino concepts around the world, said Napa, who studied restaurant management and culinary techniques at the French Culinary Institute in New York and was formerly in retail, Hayop ni Manam was “created with the lens of Filipinos who are born, bred and raised, and continue to live in, the Philippines.”
Food-wise, “If you took a fisherman or bus driver from the Philippines and sat them in this restaurant, and we brought out the dishes – okay, granted, they're a bit more plated, maybe we use tweezers sometimes – but that fisherman will say, ‘I can recognise that dish.’ That's extremely important to us.”
And so, “I feel like maybe, there's a chance to take care of nostalgic, homesick Filipinos. That's really the primary reason we said we'd come,” she added. At the same time, she hopes to also offer them “a dining room where they can introduce their non-Filipino friends to the cuisine” – and, of course, a place for Singaporeans to deepen their understanding of Filipino food.
Manam’s House Crispy Sisig: Chopped, sizzling pork jowl and cheek. (Photo: Hayop ni Manam)
“Singapore, to me, has an amazing, rich, mature dining scene, and Singaporeans have very high standards for food. I feel if we can do something here that can resonate, maybe we can resonate in other markets, as long as we pass the Singapore test,” Napa chuckled.
Hayop ni Manam’s local partners are Russell Yu of Iki Concepts and Gwen Lim of Patisserie G. Manam’s R&D chef and junior executive chef are currently in town, and The Moment Group’s founders plan to be here often. Napa herself has family here, whom she has been visiting regularly for many years.
“I always say Filipino cuisine is magical because it makes so much out of so little,” she mused. “I think that's what's special about our cuisine – it’s a heritage of flavours more than a heritage of meat. We haven't tried to mess with that. I think there are amazing global Filipino concepts you'll find in other markets that take advantage of all ingredients from other cuisines. And that's wonderful. I love going to them. But, we kind of wanted to stay true, for the most part, to the pantry list that the Filipino household has.
“There are very few ingredients we have here that don't belong in that pantry list – one would be extra virgin olive oil, because that's yummy; butter, which we've used with a lot of discipline; one dish has red wine; and one dish has honey. Other than that, every Filipino mama will have our ingredients.”
And, each dish is complex in its components. “We only have around 30-plus dishes on the menu, but we have over 100 sub-recipes for those dishes, so, there's a lot of effort that goes into making them,” she said.
Hayop ni Manam is at 104 Amoy Street.
Continue reading...